Political strategist Roger Stone compared the tape recording of President Donald Trump and his former attorney, Michael Cohen, discussing the matter of a former Playboy model to a tape he once heard of recordings between late President Richard Nixon and White House counsel John Dean, as in both cases the attorneys were leading their witnesses.
"John Dean published a book in which he said that he published a transcript of all the Watergate conversations, including all of those between himself and Nixon," Stone told Newsmax TV's "Newsmax Now." "When I dug [them] up and I listened to them, they sound just like that, leading the witness."
"'What financing,'" Trump said. "'What are you talking about?' Cohen is speaking so obliquely to a man who is clearly confused, it's outrageous."
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And to make the case the tape proves the president approved anything specific, "I assume that is a reference to the National Enquirer, but I think that's another witch hunt about the National Enquirer. The National Enquirer is entitled to pay for information. Its editors are entitled to kill stories. It happens every day at The New York Times, so I think it's another witch hunt. This is not proof that the president did anything wrong.
"This is proof that the president may have had a moron working for him."
Judge Andrew Napolitano, though, has said the tape could show civil fraud, and while Stone said he has a "high regard" for Judge Napolitano and thinks he should be on the Supreme Court, Stone thinks Napolitano is wrong.
"I do think it is outrageous that Cohen's position as attorney was breached so easily by the office of special counsel [Robert Mueller]," Stone said. "I have no idea what he may have done for the president or not done. I didn't know he was better about not being in politics."
The real story, Stone said, is Cohen's enormous legal fees.
"He's facing $5 million in legal fees," Stone said. "He has no way to obtain them. He cannot get them from the Trumps or the Trump Foundation . . . he was never a member of the Trump campaign that was being staff members, who were being investigated, a trust was being set up to reimburse people like Hope Hicks for their legal interrogations but Michael wasn't eligible."
Even if the Trump family is sympathetic, they can't pay Cohen's fees, because it would pose a conflict of interest, he added.
Stone is author of "Stone's Rules: How to Win at Politics, Business, and Style." It is available on Amazon.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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